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tv   NOW With Alex Wagner  MSNBC  October 18, 2013 9:00am-10:01am PDT

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attempt to shut down the affordable care act. having cost the american economy $24 billion and lost the confidence of a nation, republicans just may have learned their lesson. speaking to the national view senate minority leader mitch mcconnell warned fellow republicans about the next budget fight. one of my favorite things is an old kentucky saying, there's no education in the second kick of the mule. the first kick of the mule was in 1995. the second one was the last 16 days. a long mule kick. a government shutdown is off the table, we're not going to do it. mcconnell's former counterpart harry reid was cautiously optimistic about whether the grand old party was broken. i don't know said harry reid, i don't like the word broken. remember, we're not dealing with rational folks. i do believe they have been hurt ir reply irreparabley.
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>> cruz had this to say. >> i will continue to do anything i can to stop the train wreck that is obama care. i'm not serve in office because i desperately needed 99 new friends in the u.s. senate or really, any friends at all. as josh green writes, the wacko bird wing of the republican party is unlikely to back down any time soon. quote, while the shutdown might look like spectacular self-immolation of band or bitter enders it's a better understood as the natural consequence of decades long shift in the american political landscape. over the last century and especially since the mid 1970s congress has grown steadily more polarized as the south has relined from solidly democratic to republican. joining me ryan grim, eugene robinson and co-founder of the
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in si insight agency ben le bold. joining us from washington senior national correspondent for bloomberg business week josh green, whose piece this is, "crisis is the new normal. josh, i don't want to be a pessimist here but there's been some very solid analysis taking history into account that points to the notion that these bitter enders, these fractious bitter-enders are not going away soon. tell us why that is. specifically the last few decades, 1970s, transition of the south and how that plays into this. >> sure. if you look at this against the broader sweep of history, what you discover is the debt ceiling slowdown and shutdown are less of a symptom -- sorry, more of a symptom and more of a mania that gripped washington over the past couple of years. that's because if you talked to
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political scientists who studied this, they will tell you that the country has been undergoing a geographical and partisan sorting basically since the late 19th century that is especially sped up since the 1970s. so what you have is a polarized congress that can't seem to kind of bridge the chasm that really is the reason that john boehner can't marry his right ring with even moderate democrats. i argue in the piece that this is really the new normal. there isn't any reason to think that just because republicans got hammered during the shutdown that they are now going to back off and we're going to return to a more reasonable mode of politics. >> eugene, frank rich has been writing in new york magazine and he would seem to agree with josh this is part of a larger historic battle. he couches it as sort of outcropping of the battle we saw during civil war, two parts of america at odds with one another in a fundamental way.
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this week he updated his piece and wrote, "this insurgency has been fighting to bring down the federal government for almost 200 years. whatever temporary electoral setbacks might come in 2014 or 2016, whatever its inability to win national elections, it's hardly going to turn back now because it lost this foolhardy battle anymore it turned back now after the shutdowns and clinton impeachments debacle. >> that's an interesting way to look at it. there is a geographical split. party has become more southern, south has become solidly republican. however, there are tea party congressmen and women from other parts of the country as well. so you find this insurrectionist sentiment as well in the south. i think complicating this are a bunch of anxieties the
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demography or beijing of america around economics and globalization and in some ways the race to the bottom of wages and insecurity. >> ben, michael baron makes the point we have this notion, these dreams of halcion days when everybody used to retire together and drink scotch at the end of a legislative session and the country was more on the same page. he makes the point where we are now is very much where america has been throughout history. i'll read the interpret. he writes, "american politics has returned to its combative partisan default mode. in the 1790s -- i never thought i would quote american history of hundreds of years ago as much as i have in the first five minutes of the show. in the 1790s americans were divided over a worldwide war between commercial brit & and revolutionary france. strive was bitter.
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anti-bell um split over issues of bank of united states to slavery in the territories. for three generations after the civil war americans north and south lived almost entirely apart from one another. do we take that as a measure of solace that we've always been a warring nation? do you agree with that? >> we always had a couple of laughs in the white house about the number of times we turn on tv and say if the president would have just had that member of congress over for a drink, they would have voted for legislation. what the common thread throughout history, what's in the political self-interest of those members and the districts they represent. i don't think the tea party is likely to change at any time but the question is is speaker boehner emboldened after this battle. the tea party was allowed to run this play, where did it get them? republican party has the lowest approval rating in history. 14 districts that weren't competitive before the shutdown are now competitive. will he allow more votes that allow those what he called
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responsible democrats and republicans to team up together. more than 40 republicans have voted two out of three times for -- on republican leadership side when baper allowed votes in the past. that path is possible if the speaker feels emboldened after this battle. >> let me play devil's advocate. one of the questions, we have this bipartisan committee that is supposed to work on a budget deal. i think people are incredibly skeptical as we're discussing right now, sounds like the tea party isn't going anywhere. harry reid was asked if republicans want to trim social security, medicare or medicaid, they would have to give on tax revenue and exchange. asked specifically if the deal must be revenue for entitlements, reid said yes and call it mandatories. bloomberg review, government should give up on tax question, the thing republicans will die on.
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revenue raisers aka tax increases. instead they should go for a mix of other tradeoffs which would put the country on a better course, immigration. what do you think about that? >> as reid told us yesterday he's not going to do that. >> progress i was and democrats relax on the tax issue. >> i don't see the point of trading taxes for entitlement reform. if you look at it from this perspective, slightly a different angle than ezra is taking, the purpose is to fund a social safety net. why would you give up the social safety net to get more tax revenue. >> his argument is, and josh, i would love to get your perspective ongoing, ezra's point, you can deal on sequester levels, use some of the funds there to invest in infrastructure or education, but the question of raising taxes is just going to be the republicans will never come to the table on that. >> i think it's true to an
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extent. i think what ezra tries to do is take a hard eyed look at what is possible in this environment. i do think there are positive things the democrats could accomplish in terms of loosening up sequester rules, maybe raising spending caps a little bit. the danger, though, you're in a position if you're in the white house, democrat of trading temporary spending increases for permanent cuts and entitlement reform. up until now these something democrats haven't been able to do. doesn't sound like harry reid is able to do that either. i'm not sure how much appetite it will be for a deal. >> one thing said several time in the interview, he doesn't feel like it's such an easy equation they want to undo the sequester they see it as a -- nondefense goes up a slight bit, cuts in the pentagon. the way he sees it, there's a ton of pressure on republicans to undo sequester. why trade things for something
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they already want. >> i've got to ask you, we always talk about the hawkish wing of the republican party. they have taken a back seat. the idea these defense cuts are so painful has not been born out in all this. >> people like rand paul are saying bring it on, more cuts. i think we should recall that less than a year ago republicans degree to more tack revenue, to increasing taxes on the wealthy. so it's not like it never happens. the president campaigned on this. along with the affordable care act, the phrase he said most often was balanced approach. every speech, balanced approach. we're going to have balanced approach to our deficit and economic growth problems. i don't see how democrats are going to go ahead with entitlement cuts without some additional revenue. i just don't see it. >> i would also think, ben, there's a lot of wind in their sales from projecting such a
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unified front in this latest battle. if harry reid is setting down the marker saying we're not going there, given how the president hates to use the word victory, given how successful it was in the pivotal moment, transformative one, it's hard to imagine anybody splitting from that. >> i think eugene is right. the essential question on the ballot in the last election. are we going to fund middle class priorities and reduce the deficit in a balanced way. you might be able to package it with another deal like tax reform that's important to republicans, lower the corporate tax rate. maybe that's the exchange. i agree there's no way this won't be done without some sort of revenue, which by the way every bipartisan deficit that looked at this -- >> you can start with corporate tax reform, exactly right. everybody says the corporate tax rate is too high, democrats, republicans. >> then it's a question of what to do with the actual revenue once you have it. >> what to do with the revenue, is there a creative way you can propose a partial tax amnesty to
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repatriate. >> millions of dollars -- yeah, trillions of dollars. >> parked overseas. there's lots to work with there. >> josh, i want to ask you about this as a closer to the big ticket items we've been discussing. there's a piece out, "how to fix washington." he has a number of suggestion lift the ban on earmarks so there's more sticks and carrots to yield in congress. allow national parties to spend more on individual campaigns. that way the rnc and dnc and dccc, et cetera, they can control the candidates and they are not just funded by outside groups like heritage action. reform the 60-vote threshold which everybody would like to see happen and streamline process of bringing bills to the floor of the house. the last two are accepted of the first two, are those wildly optimistic or wildly pessimistic assessments of where we are in our current political -- on the
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current political stage? >> i think they are both good ideas. they are wildly optimistic in the sense i don't know how republicans would sell to their base the idea that we need to bring back earmarks, as good an idea as it would be. it's a lubricant to the legislative process and in the broader scheme of the budget and how much money it entails, it's a drop in the ocean. the problem, i talked to political scientists about these reforms toward the end of my piece. the problem is that the same partisan forces that are causing the polarization are also impeding congress from passing these kinds of reforms that would sort of, you know, sand the rough edges off the legislative process and help do away with some of the excesses we've seen like the debt ceiling scare, showdown. you're really trapped in this maze where you can't reduce the partisanship because partisanship is preventing these very reforms. >> right. reforming 60-vote threshold
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would be filibustered. you know what i'm saying. >> ted cruz would be leading the charge i'm sure. >> bloomberg business week's josh green. thank you as always, my friend. after the break in his post crisis speech yesterday president obama listed among his top three legislative priorities, will republicans shut down comprehensive immigration reform. we'll discuss when maria kumar joins us next on "now." [ male announcer ] ever since daryl got gain with lift & lock, he loves the way his laundry smells. [ sniffs ] [ woman ] uh, honey, isn't that the dog's towel? [ panting, gwling ] [ whimpers ] [ male announcer ] hey. mi towel, su towel. gain with lift & lock cleans amazing so your clothes smell amazing. and get the scent you love
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for a store near you go to benjaminmoore.com/bayarea. we should finish the job of fixing our broken immigration system. if the house has ideas on how to improve the senate bill, lets hear them.
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lets start the negotiations, but lets not leave the problem to keep festering for a year or two years or three years. this can and should get done by the end of this year. >> the president's quick pivot to immigration reform has many in his party cheering but has others calling for a reality check. national review's jonathan strong tweeted, people are talking about immigration being next. have you been watching the house? #craziness. again, plenty of reasons for pessimism. bipartisan gang of eight is down to five as three republican members bowed out two in the run-up to the shutdown. their reason, the problem is politics, they said, citing the president's support for affordable care act and his continued disregard of the constitution to advance his political agenda. that has prompted many including dave weigle to cite a pattern.
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refuse to go along because they don't trust the president. the first member to leave the house reform gang delivered much the same message. >> i have seen in these negotiations that harry reid and president obama will not negotiate in good faith. what they will do is they will go to the media and they will drag their friends in the media to attack us. after the experience i've had over the last two weeks, i think there's absolutely no way. i think it would be crazy for republicans to pass immigration reform and go to a conference. >> the president's desire for immigration reform was rooted in party politics. >> i think he knows he's not going to have a good chance of getting immigration through, but he thinks, and he's probably right, that he could exploit this for the midterm election to gin up support for the democrats to portray republicans as immigrant, hispanic, et cetera.
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>> republican fears may be exacerbated by a pew report that says the number of undocumented immigrants in the country is back on the rise after three years of decline during the recession. opposition to reform remains fierce among house republicans and speaker boehner ruled out put the bipartisan senate bill on the floor for a vote. and yet immigration reform still may have a chance, as conservative byron york writes, "reformers have unanimous democratic support plus a significant number of republicans. they add the support of powerful interest groups and they have money, money, money. never, ever assume the same is over. joining us from washington is the president of voter latino maria kumar. we ended on a high note as contrary to reality i remain optimistic something can get done on immigration. after this bitter battle an government shutdown, how do you think that colors or shapes the
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debate on immigration reform as the government outlined it as a top priority going forward. >> if history has anything to show, the last time there was a government shutdown and republicans taking the polls, they came out and did the most aggressive legislation that did support. the reform line of '96. the republican party right now has the worst polling numbers. they are all looking at 2014 trying to figure out how are they going to galvanize their base. but yes, more importantly, how are they going to demonstrate to the american people they are actually working. immigration reform is a few things that has national support across party lines, independents, republicans, democrats all believe the system is broken and they want something fix. there's very few policies on the table that can actually inject money into the economy, address our national security and at the end of the day they can give each other a high-five and say, hey, we did something. >> do something, guys. >> something. >> it's a careful needle the president has to thread. on the one hand he needs to be
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aggressive about this. he needs to push it forward and make it a priority to get anybody to do anything. at the same time if it looks political, then you risk real backlash from republicans who crowd him and say you're doing this to score political points. as maria outlines, the same strategy he describes. immigration advocates have a window of opportunity to appeal to boehner's party practicing tichl. their pitch, the best way to get disaster behind him is for republicans to score a big political victory. you need this. there has to be buy in. >> it's certainly a careful line for the president to walk. look, this could be the republican party's opportunity to get business back. there have been plenty of stores in the past week about how republican donors pulling their checks away because of the shutdown. this could be their opportunity to get business back. "the wall street journal" editorial board supporters of the party. but ultimately it will be that political motivator that brings them back to the table.
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if they want to perpetually lose the white house voting immigration reform down is the best way to do it. it's the republican party sending their autopsy report after the last election they had to embrace this to be viewed as a more inclusive party. >> you're all being so logical. we're talking about today's republican party. you know, remember the last month that we saw. we didn't see logic. we didn't see enlightened self-interest on the part of the republican party. they wen off a cliff. >> eugene, if you actually look at today charlie's report on the 2012 election he moved 14, 15 seats all towards the favor of the democratic party because of the shutdown. so everybody is reading this and saying, shoot, we can keep our seats. >> i think you're allowed to say that. >> my apologies. this is one of the few opportunities where they can come together. as ben mentioned, big business is not happy now with the
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republican party. they have to figure out how do they move their big business, their evangelical base who is also on board and more importantly how do they keep their seats and do a job that they can get some of their other efforts on board. >> i agree with everything you say, i just don't see them doing it. >> don't you feel like, ryan, we're having a moment where moderates who have been camouflaging themselves against a smoke screen of nonsense are kind of coming out of the woodwork and saying, you know what, we cannot let these people shut down the government. mitch mcconnell saying we're not going to shut the government down. in this moment of sanity, doesn't it make sense to strike while the iron is hot? >> there's no challenge in house republican leadership. john boehner, he wants to use any moderate capital to get a debt ceiling. mccarthy doesn't have presidential, paul ryan is the only one who does but he's staking out a far right position. that doesn't leave anybody to
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take the lead on it. i don't think boehner cares about party pragmatism. he's probably retiring. that's not something one way or another he wants to be his legacy, what he sees as a democratic achievement. he really, really, really wants a grand bargain as much as obama has always wanted one. that's where he's going to put capital if he has it. >> maria, all the reason to try, we were talking in the last block things to push for if not tax increases maybe immigration reform is part of the bargain and everybody can agree. from the point of immigration advocates, how long do you give republicans a window to legitimately come to the table and bargain on this before it is used as a sort of axe to hit them over the head with. >> january 21st 2014, that's
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what everybody will look at. every single person looking at the congressional members running primaries. there's a lot of rumors in washington that republicans don't want to pick up immigration reform after june primaries when all the seats are set. hearing from the inside that's not an option. really identifying who do you run who can be more moderate and believes in immigration reform. just to get a little back on boehner. boehner if he does retire and leaves the speakership, who is going to hire him right now. he has very few friends, he's very ineffective, right? >> gene, i would love to know your thoughts on this. i kind of think john boehner gets a job on k street, no matter what. he's going to have cash no matter what. >> he doesn't have to go back to running a bar in cincinnati. >> he can finally get a booth with his name on it at boardens. >> he gets it. he gets it. >> let me ask you, maria, before we let you go, marco rubio, who
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led the charge in the senate, the face of comprehensive immigration reform clearly feels like he got burned, was a no vote on reopening government, averting financial catastrophe, evidence of how vulnerable he felt out there. how much is rubio's behavior a setback for the issue of immigration reform. >> i think right now he's lying low because all of a sudden ted cruz came on board. i don't think anybody saw him including marco rubio as a favor for 2016. however, most republicans and democrats say rubio is someone who is willing to compromise and negotiate as he was demonstrated when he came to immigration reform. i think he's going to be someone to watch. florida specifically they care about immigration reform, very personal. you could say the same thing about ted cruz in texas. it's much more personal when it comes to florida. unlike texas where you have a
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history of folks crossing the border back and forth you have a larger undocumented population there. >> we shall see. thank you for your time as always, my friend. >> thank you, alex. >> coming up, new reports confirm what many in the international community suspected. u.s. drone strikes far more deadly than the government acknowledged. we will discuss national security unknowns when nbc's richard engel and "new york times" mark mazzetti john me just ahead. has it's ups and downs.
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zyrtec-d®. at the pharmacy counter. it is a hard fact that u.s. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists in every war. for the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss. for me and those in my chain of command, those deaths will haunt us as long as we live. >> that was president obama speaking last may about his administration's secreted targeted drone campaign. facts in the limelight. two new reports from special u.n. investigators reveal drone strikes killed far more civilians than acknowledged. reports show at least 400 civilians killed with drones in
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pakistan and as many as 58 in yemen. drones come from the sky, u.n. investigators concludes but leave the heavy footprint of war on the community as they target. the report warns the expansive and secretive use of drone strikes threatens international security. it is unclear whether the cia will bring its drone campaign out of the shadows any time soon. underscoring death and complexity of america's security state "the washington post" is now reporting cia has a secret ally in the drone campaign, nsa. according to documents provided, reports the drone campaign relies heavily on nsa's ability to vacuum up enormous quantities of e-mails, other fragments of signals intelligence. to handle the expanding workload, the post reports, nsa created a secret unit known as counter-terrorism align cell or ct mack to concentrate on vast resources on hard to find terrorism targets.
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coincidentally this report came out the same day the white house announced director of nsa keith alexander. asked yesterday whether alexander's was tied to domestic surveillance, white house press secretary jay carney rejected the premise and argued the merits of the nsa as a foreign intelligence agency. >> we can confirm that several weeks ago general alexander affirmed to the president he intends to depart his post in the spring of 2014. the national security agency is a foreign intelligence agency. its activities are directed against these valid foreign intelligence targets in response to leaders in order to protect the nation and its interests from threats such as terrorism and proliferation of mass destruction. >> nbc news chief correspondent richard engel, national security correspondent mark mazzetti. mark, i'd like to go to you first on the question of nsa and
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cia working together. if you're edward snowden, lack of transparency, implemented in secret out of public oversight lack legitimacy and are a problem. from your vantage point how big a deal is it these agencies are working in collusion. >> it's not surprising nsa and cia worked together or cia relies on nsa to vacuum up all sorts of information overseas. i think the documents in the post report quite interesting details how they work together and specific people they have gone after. i think that this all feeds into that combined with u.n. report the extent of use of drones overseas. also whether there's going to be increased international concern about the american -- the cia's
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use of drone strike. coming at the same time and feeding international concern about drones. >> richard, you've done a lot of reporting from the middle east where a lot of these drone strikes are focused. that line if the report, drones come from the sky but leave the heavy footprint of war on the communities they target. how impactful is this u.n. report for the international community. >> i don't think it's that impactful. it's really important for pakistan and internal pakistani politics. there was an impression they happen everywhere across the middle east and happened frequently. they don't really. they happen in a few countries. they happen in somalia, yemen, pakistan and pakistan region. that's not to say the only places they could happen but that's the vast majority of the cases. pakistan is very upset every time this happens even though pakistan secretly cooperates. so there is a campaign behind
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the pakistani government to embarrass the united states over this droning campaign even though pakistan cooperates with it, pakistan doesn't want internal politics, doesn't want pakistani people to believe it is conspiring with the united states. look what happened a few days ago in libya. u.s. special ops go in. they grab a wanted terrorist suspect, then a leak comes out saying the libyan government knew all about it. then the libyan prime minister is arrested, threatened, kidnapped, accused of being a u.s. lackey. that's why pakistanis don't want to be in the same position, making drone strikes. not saying it isn't a big deal -- >> to that point domestic politics in play, the revelation
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civilians killed in this drone strikes and not single din as some members of congress said. if we are to believe u.n. report and some statistics from bureau of investigative journalists, we're talking about in pakistan cia drones from 2004 to 2014, 376 drone strikes, civilian casualties ranging from 407 to 926, children killed 168 to 200. the president has found himself in a very uncomfortable position here. a lot of us understand it's difficult to choose between drone strikes and boots on the ground. some people say not hard to choose. you choose drone strikes. the effect of those casualties, numbers of casualties made public or the fact u.n. pushing these drone strikes have been far more deadly than previously reported, does that change the administration's calculus on how and whether and when to use these drones. >> i don't think it will change
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administration's calculus. it has the stamp of the u.n. on it saying there have been significantly more civilian casualties than the united states has let on. that is significant. to the obama administration, one of the things they can take from the u.n. report, it does say civilian casualties are down significantly over the past year and a half. so that is one thing that the u.n. should put in their favor. but clearly the administration has only really admitted to very small numbers of civilian casualties. president obama said in may he hopes and plans these strikes will keep receding in number. we did see a big spike in august in yemen in the midst of a terror alert, nine or ten drone strikes in the period of a week and a half. there is not a tremendous amount of public evidence right now that the administration is
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significantly dialing this back. >> we do know, richard, they are making steps at least towards great are transparency and rule of law. if you look at al libi, he was on a ship in the mediterranean sea and was not read his miranda rights. he's now on u.s. soil and the idea is going to have a federal trial not a military tribunal. that would be a step in the direction of constitutional process if you can call it that. >> it's very hard to keep these things secret. i think technology has changed even since 9/11. when these drone strikes first began and the united states a decade ago was able to conduct secret wars, a secret war in afghanistan in the early phases very few people were watching. they were able to carry out drone strikes in somalia, parts of pakistan and keep it quiet and say these are covert actions
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and nobody was killed, nobody wrong was killed, civilians. over time it's harder and harder for them to do that. they are not opening up entirely. the fact that al libi, the terror suspect who was grabbed in tripoli, libya, was brought back to the united states, is being put on trial is a tep toward greater transparency. he wasn't sent immediately in guantanamo bay even though he was kept in this weird ship in limbo. over time it's getting harder for united states to fight secret drone wars and pretend nobody is getting hurt by them. >> it is certainly a developing chapter in our national security history. "new york times" mark mazzetti, thank you for your time and thank you as always to richard engel. senate elect cory booker plans to celebrate by marrying same sex couple on monday while the mayor uses slurs to denigrate
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and get a quote now. this afternoon president obama will announce nomination of jay johnson to lead the department of homeland security replacing janet napolitano. johnson who served as the pentagon's top lawyer during president obama's term seems likely to be confirmed making him the fourth head of the dhs since the department was established in 2002. at dhs johnson will preside over a department with 240,000 employees. "the daily beast" which broke the news reports johnson a well-known and trusted figure in the obama white house was a central player in many of the administration's sensitive national security and terrorism policies including ramping up of drone program revival of military commissions for suspected terrorists and repeal of defense department's ban on gays serving openly in armed
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forces. president obama's counter-terrorism policy has lately come under heavy fire from critics who say it's a continuation of questionable policies of his predecessor george w. bush. while johnson has been heavily involved in shaping those policies, he's also been behind the president's recent calls for more transparency. in a speech back in march johnson argued, "in the absence of an official picture of what our government is doing, many in the public filled the void by imagining the worst. president obama will announce johnson's nomination in the white house rose garden at 2:00 p.m. eastern today. i put in the hours and built a strong reputation in the industry. i set goals and worked hard to meet them. i've made my success happen. so when it comes to my investments, i'm supposed to just hand it over to a broker and back away? that's not gonna happen. avo: when you work with a schwab financial consultant, you'll get the guidance you need with the control you want. talk to us today.
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new jersey's cory booker has been a senator elect 36 years but he's wasting no time getting stuff done before he heads to washington midnight monday booker will marry at least 10 same-sex couples in his home of newark. despite chris christie's efforts to ban gay marriage, new jersey ruled same-sex couples must be allowed to marry under the
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state's equal protection law. ben, the court could block booker's attempt to marry these couples because christie appealed the ruling. it does bring to the forethe question, what is the platform on marriage equality going to look like in 2016. >> that's interesting question gavin newsome did this and they were leap frogging to sign on. amicus brief before the supreme court. the republican consultant class is there. you might have a scenario where a republican who runs an electability message tries to take this issue off the table and say they are for it during the primary process, a huntsman-type figure like you saw it this time around. it will be interesting to watch. >> meanwhile for every step forward, 16 steps back. in south carolina, your home state, eugene, the mayor reportedly wrote on facebook the
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post has since been deleted, what's it going to take to get these queers to realize they don't need a piece of paper. want your queer to get your stuff when you die? make a will. the bigotry, racism, clinging to archaic points of view are stunning even in this republican party. >> thanks a lot, alex. as you know i speak for all the craziness. this is the mayor of west union. i grew up in south carolina west union, west of union, which is really far. >> west of planet earth. >> that's out there. it is out there. and so there will be pushback. this train, the destination of this train is very clear, we know where it's heading.
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it's a demographic thing, it's an age thing. there's going to be gay marriage in this country. the question is whether you're on the right side or wrong side. i think republicans can hurt themselves nationwide certainly by being opposed to it. >> speaking of bad positions to take. ryan, you're a denizen of washington, d.c., so you know one of the house stenographers went batty talking about freemasons writing the u.s. constitution just as these big pieces of legislation coming to the floor. on fox & friends hinted the stenographer was a victim of religious discrimination what she was doing was not a mental episode but exercise a gift of the spirit. if i exercised the gifts of the spirit on television the way the stenographer did on the floor of the house, i don't think i would have a job. >> if you haven't been recognized by the chair, even
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recognizing gift of the speaker or lord are out of order. it doesn't matter if it actually did come from the good lord himself or was just total insanity. you can't do this. this is not vietnam. there are rules here. >> i love you're like this is not vietnam, there are rules here. i'm going, further evidence that everyone in the house is basically crazy, here even including the court stenographer. thank you to ryan, eugene and ben. that is all for "now." see you sunday at noon. "andrea mitchell reports" coming up next. congestion, for the smog. but there are a lot of people that do ride the bus. and now that the buses are running on natural gas, they don't throw out as much pollution into the air. so i feel good. i feel like i'm doing my part to help out the environment.
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progressive direct and other car insurance companies? yes. but you're progressive, and they're them. yes. but they're here. yes. are you...? there? yes. no. are you them? i'm me. but those rates are for... them. so them are here. yes! you want to run through it again? no, i'm good. you got it? yes. rates for us and them -- now that's progressive. call or click today.
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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," tech support. website woes becoming a nightmare for the online exchanges despite white house promises to fix the mess. >> it's important to remind folks that even as there have been challenges enrolling in the website, those challenges are addressed and progress made and
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people are enrolling across the country. >> lesson learned. mitch mcconnell says there won't be another government shutdown in january. has anyone told ted cruz? >> i will continue to do anything i can to stop the train wreck that is obama care. >> critical condition. new details from dick cheney on his new book on just how close he came to dying before his heart transplant. >> i wake up every morning with a big smile on my face thankful for a new day i never expected to see. >> call of the wild. the zoo is back. the gates open today. the pandas are welcoming visitors back. good day, i'm andrea mitchell